adobe illustrator - Uniform Scattering with vector

I'm attempting to create a random spread of dots to create a gradient look. I'm getting really close to the effect I want by blending two scatter brushes. The issue I'm having is that the blended brushes creates unwanted lines, and the dots run into each other. I keep adjusting the settings with no luck.

Here's the effect I'm wanting to achieved.

• Smooth transition


• On Circular path



• Dots don't converge


• Scattered at random-ish

Here's how close I'm able to get:

• Blended scatters create unwanted lines


• Dots converge


• Spacing isn't gradual from edge to center

Answer

Astute Graphics has an Illustrator extension "Stipplism" . It obviously can convert greyshades to dot densities + more. I haven't it, but check it here https://astutegraphics.com/software/stipplism/

A radial gradient can be the first objects to get it.

If you do not want Stipplism and the blending approach isn't good, then you can trace a bitmap, which has the effect.

The bitmap is easily copyable from GIMP. There you make a radial gradient and dither it to 1 bit indexed mode.

At first make an empty image, have quite low pixel dimensions to keep Illustrator load reasonable. Here is a 200 x 200 pixels RGB image and a radial gradient is just under construction:

There's a circular selection to keep the edges empty. The gradient isn't fully linear. There's a middle stop to make the sparse center wider. The shade range is only about 60%...100% white, because darker greys will make contiguous blocks in the dithering process.

Image mode is converted from RGB to Indexed (it's in the Image menu). Here's the dialog

I converted it back to RGB, but it seems to work in Illustrator as well when it's copied and pasted as is. Here's the tracing dialog:

Note: the accuracy is stretched to maximum in the tracing settings and white is ignored.

The result contains nearly square dots. If you want round ones, do the following:

• expand the live trace to make the result editable


• with Path > Simplify transform all curves to straight lines


• apply filter Stylize > Round corners; you must measure one dot in high zoom to see the proper radius if you want to be careful. Fortunately too big radius doesn't harm.


• make the result editable with Object > Expand Appearance

Here's a zoomed picture of the final result: